Milky Way Stars Photobomb Spiral Galaxy in Stunning Hubble Photo
The Hubble Space Telescope captured the sight of a beautiful spiral galaxy adorned with the brilliance of two nearby stars.
Galaxy NGC 5495 is located 300 million light-years from Soil, far behind the jewel-like celestial bodies at the top left of the center of the galaxy and another on the right. These are stars within the Milky WayEarth’s home system which, like NGC 5495, has a spiral galaxy.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA) – who wrote a description of the galaxy’s “stately sweeping spiral arms” in a new NGC 5495 image (opens in new tab) published on September 26 — 60% of the galaxies are spiral galaxies (opens in new tab). This means that most of the stars in the universe are in a galaxy like ours, or as seen in the new Hubble image.
Related: Hubble telescope spies on a cosmic ‘spider web’ with clues to a dark secret
ESA officials write that NGC 5495 is a Seyfert galaxy (opens in new tab). These are galaxies with activity at their core. The most extreme version of a active galactic core (opens in new tab) (AGN), called a quasar, is the brightest object in the known universe. This kind of glowing galactic heart is powered by the power of a supermassive black holewhich, according to astronomers, lie at the center of most, if not all, of the galaxies in the cosmos.
When these gravity wells collect a lot of material on the outside, the material heats up and begins to glow. Galaxy NGC 5495 does not fall into the quasar category, but is still considered a swirling AGN.
Galaxy NGC 5495 is also pleasing to the eye as it conveniently faces forward, making the core and spiral arms clearly visible. Although not too visible from this perspective, spiral galaxy NGC 5495 is likely shrouded in a halo just above and below the galactic disk. For reference, a halo is the hazy glow covering the band of the Milky Way that appears in the night sky.
Astronomers think of spiral galaxies eventually evolve (opens in new tab) go inside elliptical galaxiesbodies with older stars and less gas.
Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin (opens in new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on facebook (opens in new tab).
#Milky #Stars #Photobomb #Spiral #Galaxy #Stunning #Hubble #Photo